Chapter 1 - Problems Arise
March 2025 - Atlanta, Georgia.
Tsung’s head ached. Taking a break from his computer, he sighed, slid off his glasses, and rubbed his forehead. His bright blue eyes reflected off the terminal screen.
“I wish this damn headache would go away.” He turned toward his partner. “Any luck over there, Janette?”
The lab had a bright metallic sheen from ceiling to floor. The only color variations were from diagnostic lights scattered throughout the room. Tsung and Janette sat at matching desks with a few drawers and a single terminal near the lab entrance. On the other side of the lab was the door leading to the astral chamber.
“Still nothing.” Janette spun her chair around, sending loose strands of her chocolate-brown hair to tumble from her bun into her face. “I can’t seem to get a response. I don’t know if it’s the astral computer, the AI Matrix, or programming issues. Nothing’s working. It connects, starts to transfer data, then shuts down.”
“Just to make sure.” Tsung walked over and inspected the quantum memory monitor on the wall. “Hmm, nothing is loose.”
Tsung Lee and Janette McNath had struggled with technical issues the past few weeks. Dozens of programmers called in sick with the flu, several backup systems were corrupted and replaced, and the central cooling system within the astral chamber broke and had to be repaired twice.
“We don’t have much time.” Janette crossed her arms. “Our deadline is two days away. We’ve already had six extensions, and John won’t give us another one. All the sleepless nights, weekends, holidays… everything we’ve put into this will be for nothing.”
The Crystal Memories Project, Tsung and Janette’s life work, was assisted by two labs full of programmers creating nearly five million lines of code and hundreds of thousands of subroutines. They were sitting on five years of work and millions of dollars of funding, all in an attempt to make the world's first self-sufficient artificial intelligence capable of independent thought, human emotions, and free will. An undertaking never before achieved in the scientific community. No one had come as close as Tsung’s father had.
Tsung placed his hand on Janette’s shoulder. “I’ll convince John to give us more time. Don’t worry. We’ll see this project through to completion.”
Janette rolled her eyes. “Promises won’t get us anywhere this time. We need something concrete to show him, or he’ll pull the plug and tank everything.”
“Trust me. I’ll get the time we need to finish.” Tsung shook his head, rubbing his eyes to relieve his headache. He knew convincing John would be difficult, but he needed to appear confident.
“I'm heading home.” She stood and headed for the door. “Text me after you talk to him. Let me know how it goes.”
After Janette left, Tsung glared at the command console in the center of the room. The case jutting from the floor was mostly translucent, with lights flashing inside, producing a deep blue glow. Cooling systems snaked through the interior, punctuated by the green glow of diagnostic lights. All the wires connected at the console’s base, then the master wires disappeared under the door to the astral chamber.
He walked over to the chamber door and looked through the insulated ballistic glass.
The astral chamber was a large white room with high-powered air conditioning systems on each side. Clouds of frosty air covered the floor. The temperature was below freezing. In the middle of the room was a vented iron box that contained one of only three astral computers in existence. It was the only computer powerful enough to run a stable AI framework.
Eventually, he wanted to move Crystal into a quantum brain. They devoted an entire project to it, but it was far from completion.
A marvel of technology, the astral computer was primarily forged from condensed veltrinium, which was only harvested from certain rare asteroids. Mining them close to Earth had been illegal for years. So corporate miners had to travel further into space now to find it. Shipments were few and far between, making it a rare and precious material.
A light blinked on the diagnostic panel attached to the astral computer.
He tapped the door code, and a dark blue temperature regulation suit popped out of the wall. It resembled a skinnier version of a traditional space suit. He put it on, entered the code for the astral chamber, and waited for it to open before walking in. Even with the temperature suit, he could still see his breath.
He made his way to the command interface connected to the side of the astral computer.
Quantum core corrupted.
“That would explain why nothing else is working.”
He left the astral chamber, returned the suit, and sat in front of his terminal to update his project journal.
Core corruption. These quantum cores cost over three hundred thousand dollars each. I told John we had all the funding we needed, and now I have to ask for more time and money. He’s going to refuse another extension. I don’t know how we’ll finish this project.
Tsung stood up and steadied himself, trying to overcome his pounding headache. “Here goes nothing.”
He logged out of his terminal and exited the lab.
As he stepped into the hallway, the smell of a sickly, sweet sulfuric chemical assaulted his nose.
Tsung didn’t focus on the labs as he walked through the facility. He only knew of the projects related to the Crystal Memories and the ones nearby.
The narrow hallway led to the main lobby. Lab doors were straight across from each other in rows all the way down, with a door code and a bench in front of each one. Depending on the project, some had open windows, others were shuttered or had no windows at all.
The neighboring lab dealt with a farmer's contract for creating new growable food by genetically modifying and combining fruits, vegetables, and certain chemicals. The intent was to cut growth time drastically. Across the hall, the lab was contracted by a famous chef who had his team create a new formula to use in foods to heighten flavor without being detrimental to health.
His favorite lab, secluded by a fifteen-inch steel-plated wall, had its own ventilation system. A local animal hospital contracted it, and when they had animals scheduled to be euthanized, they used experimental medical techniques to expand the veterinary industry. He stopped by the lab occasionally to pet some of the furry patients scheduled to be released back to the animal hospital. It always calmed him when he was overly stressed. Unfortunately, today he didn't have time to stop.
As Tsung approached the lobby, he stared at the company’s mission statement printed in bold letters on the plaque near the elevator:
Quadco brings you the best research and development in private, business, military, foreign, and government contracts. We strive to bring ethical, state-of-the-art, cutting-edge research to all of our privately funded offices and facilities.
“Ethical,” Tsung mocked under his breath. “Ha!”
John Valenski, Quadco’s owner, rarely turned down contracts unless it was a conflict of interest. Some of his research bordered on breaking international law, but he got away with it because of the Preservation Act, which prevented any government entity from interfering with privately funded research as long as everything was supervised and approved by a standing board.
A board of directors governed the high-level decisions of Quadco, but John had the members entirely in his pocket. He had very few limitations regarding the contracts he accepted or how he carried them out. As far as Tsung knew, despite the ethical questions surrounding some of the research, everything fell within the bounds of international law.
Tsung stepped into the elevator to ride up three floors to John’s office. As the elevator climbed, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself.
Even though he and John were once best friends, John had become aggressive and disagreeable over the years as he distanced himself from Tsung’s family.
The elevator doors slid open, and he walked across the hallway into a spacious lobby that nearly took up the entire floor. The walls were lined with research and science awards and military commendations for their completed contract work.
Quadco’s executive secretary, Marsha, sat near the end of the lobby with John’s office right behind her desk. Other doors to various board members were evenly spaced throughout the lobby. Marsha handled everything for the entire board.
Tsung walked up to her. “Hey, Marsha. I need to speak to John. Is he available?”
She nodded and pointed to the office behind her. “Be my guest, but I wouldn’t go in there if I were you. He’s in a shitty mood today.”
Tsung paused at John’s door and entered the smoke-filled room. Tsung could always tell how stressed or annoyed John was based on how much he smoked. The haze was as thick as Tsung’s stress.
Fenrir, John’s massive, jet-black cane Corso dog, glared at Tsung. He was trained to kill and never left John’s side. Whenever John’s anger flared, Fenrir would sit up and growl, waiting for an attack command. It was a tactic John used to dominate conversations.
Tsung’s heart dropped. John had yet to acknowledge his presence and continued working on his computer.
“John?” Tsung asked after a minute.
“How’s the project coming along? Will we be done within two days as you promised?” His sarcasm was as thick as the smoke.
Tsung tried to relax his shoulders. He took a deep breath and began, “We’ve run into a few setbacks. The project’s first phase is complete, but our quantum core is fried. We will need another core and a little more time to fix the remaining issues. Even with this setback, we are over ninety percent complete with all of our milestones for an initial demo.”
John chuckled. “I had a feeling something like this would happen. So you’re telling me you need more money and more time? Is that what you’re telling me, Tsung?” He took a deep drag off his cigar.
“Yes, that’s what I’m asking. We’ve come this far, and scrapping the project right now would be a waste.”
“Bullshit.” John put his cigar in an ivory ashtray beside his computer and stared intently at Tsung. Fenrir raised his head. “This was your personal project, not even contracted. I only agreed because of your father.”
An uncomfortable silence drifted amidst the haze.
Fenrir laid his head back down.
“Listen. Carefully.” John leaned forward. He had a brown full beard and mustache, and his hair was pulled up in a ponytail. He was in his forties but looked young for his age. “Five years. Six missed deadlines. Six, Tsung.”
John pulled another cigar out of his drawer. He slowly cut off the end and primed it.
Tsung shifted in his seat. “I know. We’ve been doing our best, but this will be the last hurdle. I am asking for one final extension and one final chunk of funding. With our current progress, I am confident that we can see this phase through to completion and beyond. Give me this last shot. If you call it quits afterward, I will fully understand.”
“I’ll make this clear. Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One extra week. I’ll come by your office next Friday. If there are delays, excuses, problems, or anything that stops me from interacting with a demo, I can approve, then you and Janette can kiss your fucking jobs goodbye. You both will be fired, and I’ll find someone else to finish the project. Regardless of the connection it has to your dad. Do you understand?”
Tsung sat in silence, staring at him.
“Do you understand Tsung?” John growled, stirring Fenrir from his rest.
He nodded.
“Good,” John said. “Now, get the fuck out of my office.”
“T-Thank you,” he said and left.
As he headed to the parking lot, the sun started to set, leaving an eerie shade over the parking lot. Their entire facility was situated deep in the woods, half a mile from the main road.
Before getting into his car, Tsung took Tylenol for his headache and then texted Jannette.
Quantum core fried. That’s why it wasn’t working. I spoke to John, and he approved funding for 250k and gave us until Friday of next week. Let’s meet tomorrow morning to swap out the core and discuss a few things.
He sped home, deep in thought. He had no idea how to tell Janette about the risk of losing their jobs. With a deep breath, trying to switch from work mode to home life, his headache was finally dying down.
A problem for tomorrow. One day at a time.
He parked in the driveway of his three-bedroom red brick home with its double garage. He glanced at the old gun safe on the shelf as he walked through the garage.
Tsung’s father passed away almost ten years prior, leaving him a gold-plated, forty-five caliber handgun and the house. He used to spend a lot of time at the range with his dad and his old friend, Dave. He still occasionally practiced with Dave.
His dad was one of the world’s leading programmers, who worked on the initial coding algorithms for a self-sustaining, self-learning, and independent-thought AI. The same code Crystal was based on. His dad’s life dream of finishing the first AI fell short when he died. A deeply engraved life dream Tsung wanted to accomplish in memory of his father.
As he walked into the house, he was greeted by Antoinette, his five-year-old daughter. Her curly, black hair bounced as she jumped into his arms.
Angela stood nearby in the kitchen, finishing up dinner.
His living room and kitchen were connected, switching from bushy brown carpet to grey luxury vinyl plank, separated only by a thin line. Family pictures hung throughout the living room with a black leather couch in the center, facing a television against the wall. In the kitchen, the refrigerator had magnet toys stuck to it in various positions and toys in various spots on the floor.
“How was work today, Daddy?” Antoinette asked, her brown eyes and huge smile melting his heart.
“It was work. I’m just glad to be home.” He hugged her. “How was your day, Ant?”
“I was working on my IA, Bella. Want to see?”
“You mean AI? Give me one second, and I’ll come up to your room.”
Tsung wrapped his arms around Angela’s waist as Antoinette ran upstairs.
“Hey, baby,” she said, caressing his face. She leaned in for a kiss as he swept a lock of her platinum blond hair to join the rest, cascading almost to her waist. “How was your day?”
“Rough.”
“How so?”
He stared into her green eyes, pondering a response. She took his last name, Lee, over eight years ago, and they rarely argued. Their relationship was a match made in heaven, in his opinion.
Tsung sighed. “I had to ask John for more funding and time. He wasn’t happy.”
She bit her lip and looked away. After a moment, she shifted her gaze back to him. “Did he approve everything you asked for?”
“He said if we aren’t finished by Friday of next week, I’m out of a job, and so is Janette.”
“He’s such an asshole,” Angela whispered.
“He can be, yes.”
She scoffed. “John is... John. Either way, you need to have more confidence in yourself. I know you’ll find a way to get it done. You’ve got this, baby.” She kissed him again and turned to finish dinner.
“Let me go see how Ant’s IA is progressing.”
They both laughed as he headed upstairs.
In Antoinette’s room, his daughter’s favorite teddy bear, Bella, lay on the bed. A laptop keyboard had been taped to its arm, and the lamp cord was plugged into where its eye should be.
Her room was covered with stuffed animals and posters of her favorite TV shows. Her bed was panda-themed, and she had a video game system and TV at the foot of her bed.
“This could be an AI, but it looks more like a cyborg to me.” Tsung plopped her onto the bed and performed his signature tickle attack.
Antoinette screamed and laughed. As soon as he let her up, she yelled, “You can’t tickle me again until after dinner, Daddy,” and ran out of the room.
“Oh, you don’t think I can, little one?” he called as he ran down the hall. He caught her near the kitchen and picked her up, throwing her over his shoulder.
“Mommy, help!” she yelled.
“Dinner’s ready.” Angela smiled.
Tsung looked up. “You really had to save the day again, didn’t you?”
Angela stuck her tongue out and sat down at the dining room table. Tsung sat across from her with Antoinette between them. They ate spaghetti, spoke about their days, and started planning some details for their upcoming anniversary vacation. For a brief time, he forgot about the pressures of his job.
After dinner, Antoinette went up to her room to play, and Tsung and Angela lay on the couch binge-watching an old crime show.
Tsung rubbed his forehead.
“Another headache?” she asked. “I wish you’d listen and slow down with work before you end up like your dad.”
“Angela. Not now,” he said calmly.
“I know this project means a lot to you, but is it really worth joining your dad at this young of an age?”
Tsung’s dad had passed away shortly before Tsung married Angela. The doctors declared it was a major heart attack caused by years of work-related stress. His dad had headaches his entire life. So did Tsung since childhood.
“I can’t help the field I work in, Angela. I’m not going to throw away my dad’s life work, regardless of the cost.”
Angela huffed. “You know I’m very supportive of you and your job, but I don’t want to lose you, and I’m not going to raise Antoinette by myself.” She rolled her eyes and went to get up.
Tsung gently grabbed her shoulder. “Calm down. Everything is going to be okay.”
“Calm down?” She said louder. “What do you mean calm down? This is your health we are talking about.”
“I know, baby. I’ll be fine. I’m seeing the doctor every six months like I’m supposed to and practicing all the tricks about coping with stress. As soon as we get through this phase and get a green light for the rest of the project, most of my stress will be gone.”
She lowered her tone. “If the stress level doesn’t drop by the time our vacation is over, promise me you’ll take extended leave to get your stress back under control.”
“Okay, I will.”
“Promise me,” she demanded.
“I promise. Trust me. Everything is going to be fine.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t want to lose you.”
“You won’t,” he said, picking her up and carrying her to the bedroom. “I promise.”
Tsung laid Angela on the bed with his arm underneath her neck. His other hand lay on his favorite body part, her stomach. He gently caressed it, feeling her rib cage and gentle breathing.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked.
“I’m having trouble with my nursing classes. I feel like I’m failing them all, and the material’s a lot harder than I thought it would be.”
“I believe in you. We can get you a tutor if needed, or extra courses?” he said, sitting up in bed.
“No, it isn’t that. I just feel like a failure ever since I dropped out the first time. I was close to graduating.”
“Well, you didn’t want to be a lawyer. If your parents can’t understand that, it’s on them. You need to do what makes you happy.”
“I guess you’re right. What about you? What are you thinking about?”
“Work. And oddly, John. I wish we were all still close like we used to be,” Tsung said, chuckling to himself.
She turned away.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah,” She paused. “I’m just getting tired. I love you, baby.” She rolled over and laid on him.
“Goodnight, baby,” he whispered, kissed her forehead, and turned off the lamp.
Chapter 2 - Grinding
“Hey, you’re early.” Tsung sat down at his desk.
“We don’t have much time.” Janette turned to face him. “What’s your plan today?”
“I have to get the quantum core replacement, which I’m not looking forward to.” He rubbed his temple and took a deep breath.
“No one looks forward to talking to Adam. He’s annoying,” she said, rolling her eyes, then smiled. “Better you than me.”
“I’ll handle him,” Tsung said, furrowing his brow. “What else is left on your list? Did you finish the AI framework yesterday?”
“Finished that yesterday.” She turned back to her terminal and perused through a few screens. “Well, I’m almost done with the communications algorithm. I’ll finish that and the adaptive learning program today. If not, then early tomorrow.”
Tsung closed his eyes, forcing his mind to focus. There were so many things left to do and not enough time. “Did you finish reviewing the subroutines?”
“I did.” she turned back towards him. “The update they sent wasn’t anywhere near where it should be. It was filled with incomplete routines, errors, and bugs. Nothing seems to be properly tested.”
“I’ll swing by the programming lab and see what’s going on down there.”
Janette nodded. “How did the meeting with John go?”
“About that,” Tsung gave her a sideways glance.
“What is it?”
“We have to complete the project before next Friday, or we’re both out of a job.”
“Are you serious? Did he really say that? He’s such an asshole. We put everything we had into this project.” She stood and headed for the door. “I’m about to give him a piece of my mind.”
“Don’t,” Tsung ordered
“Why not?” she demanded, clinching her fists. “I’m tired of how he treats us and everyone else in this company.”
Tsung half rose. “Because he owns it!” Tsung barked back. “Without him, this project won’t ever become a reality, nor will my dad’s vision. So calm down and get back to work.”
“Fine.” She huffed. “But one day, he will get his.”
“I know this is frustrating, but trust me. We will get through it. If this demo goes well, we’ll have much more flexibility as we enter phase two.”
“I hope you’re right because I can’t deal with him much longer.” She turned towards her terminal. “I’ll get back to the communications module. Let me know how things go with Adam and the programmers.”
“Will do,” Tsung said as he headed for the door.
Tsung went to the elevator and rode up two floors to the programmers’ lab.
The entire lab was mostly open, with rows of desks connected into tables. High-end computers were evenly spaced out between them, with one chair for each computer. Half the desks were filled with various programmers crunching away at their keyboards. A few turned to look at Tsung when he entered, but he paid them no attention. He focused on Matthew, the programming lead, sitting at the front of the room.
Matthew got up and met Tsung. “Mr. Lee, how can I help you?”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we need to tighten things up here. We’ve been given a final deadline. I need the unfinished subroutines done by Monday and the remaining known issues fixed as well.”
“Most of our programmers are out sick. The ones in here are all we have. It might be this way until the middle of next week.”
“We don’t have time to wait. How many do we have on call?”
Matthew walked back to his desk. Sitting at his computer, he motioned for Tsung to follow.
He spent a few seconds reviewing his computer before speaking. “We have thirteen on call and another five on vacation.”
“Unfortunately,” Tsung leaned on the desk, “vacation’s over. I need these empty seats filled and everyone to work over the weekend to wrap this up.”
“I’ll have some of the ones that called in sick to work remotely. Between that and bringing in the ones on call, we should be able to manage.”
“So we should be able to accomplish that?” Tsung asked.
“Leave it to me. I’ll make it happen.”
They shook hands, and Tsung left and headed down the hallway to Adam’s lab.
Adam Stanley, by all standards, was a genius. He had the highest IQ of anyone employed by Quadco and the doctorates to prove it. But his intelligence pushed him to the brink of absolute madness.
He was John’s cousin, so he did whatever he wanted.
Tsung knocked on the lab door and waited.
“Mr. Lee. How can I help you?” Adam’s voice reverberated through the speaker.
“I need to speak with you about a time-sensitive matter. Can I come in?”
“I don’t know, can you?”
Tsung sighed, not finding it humorous. “May I come in, Adam?”
“Say, please.”
“Please.”
“No. How may I help you?”
Tsung crossed his arms. “The quantum core in our astral computer burned out. We need a new one. Do you have a way to access that?”
“I do. What’s in it for me?”
“I’ve got a higher budget for it.”
“How much?”
“How much did you need?”
“It depends.” A faint humming came from the intercom. “The core themselves are worth one-fifty. Give me five hundred thousand, and it’s a deal.”
“Are you serious?” Tsung yelled. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Then we have none in stock. Now, leave me to my work.”
Tsung sat down on the bench beside the lab to think. His headache had intensified, and the pounding made it hard to see. After a brief pause, he texted Janette.
He wants half a mil. We only have a quarter mil budget. He’s not budging, not sure what to do.
A few minutes passed before she responded.
Tell him you’ll give him a quarter mil and advice about Melissa. Trust me. It’ll work.
Tsung went back to the lab door and buzzed Adam again.
“What do you want?” he snapped.
“I’ll offer you a quarter of a million and advice about Melissa.”
After a brief pause, the lab door clicked open.
A putrid stinging hit his nose. The lab was a maze of technology, most of it reaching the ceiling.
“Come,” a voice called from the back of the lab.
Tsung made his way through the maze of machines, buzzing and clicking as he passed. The smell intensified as he got closer to the voice. As the space in the lab opened up, Adam sat at his desk directly in the center, with his terminal in front of him. Surrounding his desk were several large tubes with glowing liquid in them, too thick to see what was floating in them.
Adam brushed his long, black hair out of his face and leaned back in his chair with his hands clasped behind his head. He grinned at Tsung from behind his wireframed glasses.
“What are these?” Tsung asked, pointing at the tubes.
“Noneya,” Adam responded.
“What’s the smell.”
“Don’t worry about that either.” He smirked. “Sit. Let’s talk.”
Tsung sat down across from his desk. “So, tell me about your wife.”
Then the floodgates opened. Adam rambled about his entire life. His parents abandoned him as a child, and his wife cheated on him and used him for money.
“So, what are your thoughts?” Adam asked finally, winding down.
Tsung knew he’d only get one shot at this, so he sifted through all the information thrown at him to try and figure out what to say. “I believe you should divorce her immediately. You have proof of her cheating, and despite your eccentricities, you deserve to get treated better.”
“What eccentricities?” Adam asked, furrowing his brow.
“Nothing.” Tsung waved his arm. “One more thing, though. I don’t think your parents left because you were smart. I think they left because they were arguing as a couple, knew they wouldn’t work out, and didn’t know how to handle things at that age.”
Adam sat silent, staring at Tsung for what seemed like forever, with his hand on his chin.
“I never asked about my parents,” Adam finally said. “But you have valuable advice, nonetheless. I’ll put in an order for the quantum core and deliver it tomorrow. I’ll have one of my teams install it when it arrives.”
Tsung smiled. “Thank you. I appreciate your help.”
“One more thing,” Adam said. “Beware of Janette. She isn’t what she seems.”
“What do you mean?”
“She’s up to something.” Adam hesitated. “I see a lot of things others don’t see. Just beware. Now begone. I have work to do.”
Tsung trudged back to his lab. When he returned, he updated Janette, leaving out the part about Adam’s distrust for her.
“He’s always been a little weird. At least he was willing to help us.” Janette said.
“True. Well, let’s get to work.”
They turned on some music and worked late into the afternoon until it shifted to night. Tsung headed home to spend time with his family. He was greeted as soon as he walked into the living room.
"Hey, Baby," he said, hugging his wife.
"Hey, you're late. Is everything okay?"
"Yes, I'm sorry. I should have texted. Our deadline’s next Friday, so we have to huff it. I have to work this weekend, too."
Angela wrapped her arms around him. "Of course. Just try not to stress yourself out while you’re there. Also, Antoinette’s in bed waiting. She wanted you home before she went to sleep.”
“I’ll run up and see her.”
He hugged his wife before heading upstairs. Approaching Antoinette’s door, he heard sniffling. He opened the door and walked in. Quick shuffling came from the bed, and he flicked on the light. She was facing the other way, apparently asleep.
"Hey, Ant. Is everything okay?" He sat on her bed beside her. "You can talk to me."
She remained silent.
"Did something happen with Mommy?"
She shook her head.
"Okay, did something happen at the babysitter?"
Again, she shook her head.
"Okay, what about at school?" he asked, running out of ideas.
She stayed silent a few minutes, then rolled towards him, tears still in her eyes. “Darby and Melissa were making fun of me.”
“Tell me what happened?”
She looked at her stuffed animal beside her. “I took Bella to school for show and tell, and when I was explaining about her, they kept laughing.”
Tsung took hold of his daughter’s hand. “Listen. Sometimes, people can be cruel. But they’ll learn and grow over time and hopefully become nicer people.”
“But now everyone’s starting to talk because of them,” she said, wiping the tears away from her face.
“I’ll talk to the teacher.”
“No, it’ll make it worse. Then they’ll call me tattle-tale.”
Tsung thought for a minute. “How about this? Once Crystal is activated and working, we will present her at show and tell. We will prove them all wrong. How’s that sound?”
Her eyes lit up. “It sounds great, Daddy. I’m going to sleep so I can get up early and finish fixing Bella. Is it okay if I bring Bella?” she asked with a huge smile.
“Yes, you can. After next weekend, I’ll be home more often.” He kissed her on the forehead.
She nodded and rolled over.
Tsung headed downstairs and found his wife watching a sitcom. He sat beside her, wrapped his arm around her neck, and pulled her close.
“Did Antoinette tell you what happened today at school?” Angela asked.
“Yes, she did. I told her when Crystal is finished, she can meet her and do show and tell with her. That fixed her mood for the time being.”
“I’m glad. I’ve been worried about her. I’m half tempted to talk to the principal, but she asked me not to.” Angela stretched out on the sofa and laid her head on his lap.
He laid his hand on her stomach. Feeling her breath in and out calmed him. It was these peaceful moments with his wife that he lived for. Tsung remembered when they’d first met almost fourteen years ago.
It had been an overly cold evening, and he was shivering at the back of the coffee shop. He sipped his coffee as he continued to type his resume. He had just graduated college early with a dual doctorate in computer science and Neuroscience using an expedited program. He was ready to hit the workforce and hammer away at that student debt.
He’d been at the coffee shop for a few hours and was on his fourth cup of coffee, which left him shaky and on edge. He had a headache but was working through it.
“Hey.” A voice came from behind him, and he turned to see a young woman.
“Hi?” he asked, projecting more attitude than he’d intended.
“Umm, can I sit? If you don’t mind? I’m waiting on someone to pick me up.”
Tsung looked around and saw most of the other seats were taken. “Oh, sure. Sorry.” He pulled out the chair and lined it up beside him, motioning for her to sit.
He worked on his resume while she waited for her ride—until she broke the silence. “You got a doctorate in computer science? Sorry, I couldn’t help but read over your shoulder.”
He jumped at the sudden sound, looked at her, and smiled. “Sorry, I’ve had too much caffeine. Yes, that and Neuroscience. I’m trying to break into the field, at least entry-level.”
“Entry-level? With two doctorates, shouldn’t you be at the high-end level of the industry?”
He was taken aback. She was the first person, besides his parents and best friend John, who expressed genuine interest in his life or career.
“In most fields, yes. In technology, there’s an old joke that some people out of college can’t program their way out of a paper bag, but people in their basement can be elite hackers.”
“What does it mean?”
“Well, many freelancers that taught themselves actually program more than those in college do. So they get more field experience, debugging issues and being forced to fix complex problems with good old-fashioned research. College isn’t set up like that. But…”
“But what?” she asked with a playful smile.
“Do you have time for me to show you something?”
“Yes, of course.” She smiled again.
He opened another website and scrolled through a list of applications. “These are programs I built in my spare time.”
She leaned over and looked through the list. “You’ve programmed a lot of different stuff, so you have the best of both worlds, I guess.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“College doctorate with the skill of a basement programming hacker, all rolled into one.”
Tsung found himself blushing and energetic for the first time in a long time. He could tell this girl was different. They carried on a non-stop conversation until her ride got there, and she had to rush off, but not without exchanging numbers first.
“Are you okay, baby?” Angela asked, pulling him back from his memories.
“Yes, sorry. I was thinking about the day we met,” he said with a smile.
She pouted. “Aww, you mean the coffee shop conversation?”
“Yes, you believed in me before anyone else did.” He caressed her hair.
“Well, a dual doctorate is pretty impressive, mister computer guy.”
“It might impress some people. It didn’t seem to impress John. Even though we were best friends when he hired me, he still started me at the bottom rank of his company despite my experience,” he said, annoyed.
Angela winced. “Yes, he should have given you a better position.”
“Now he’s just an asshole, but at least he pays the bills.”
“Yeah,” she responded hollowly.
“What’s wrong?”
“Sorry, I’m just getting tired.” She closed her eyes.
Tsung picked her up and cradled her, her slender form melting in his arms as she held onto him. They went to bed, cuddled, and fell asleep together.
Chapter 3 - The Deepest Bond
Tsung and Janette arrived early and started working. Tsung’s main priority was creating and printing a technical briefing for Adam’s tech team. A few hours into the workday, they had a knock at the door. Tsung opened it and was greeted by a three-person team.
“Mr. Lee?” the lead tech asked.
“That’s me. How can I help you?”
“Name’s Jimmy. We’re here to install the quantum core.”
“How long does installation take?”
“A half hour. An hour if we run into issues.”
Tsung grabbed the briefing off his desk and passed it to Jimmy. “This covers everything you need to know. We’ll take a coffee break while you finish the installation. Just shoot me a text when you’re done.”
Tsung and Janette headed to the lobby and turned into a small employee lounge. It was a small room with a refrigerator, coffee machine and materials, and microwave in the middle of the counter. A few tables and chairs littered the room, but it mostly stayed empty.
They made some coffee, and both sat at a nearby table.
“How much did you get done yesterday?” Tsung asked.
“I finished the AI framework and communications algorithm. I’ve been working on the Adaptive Learning Program, hoping to finish that today.”
“Making decent time so far. We will be on track if the installation goes well and the subroutines get finished over the weekend.”
“How are you and Angela?” Janette asked.
Tsung glanced at her. “We’re doing good.”
Janette smiled. “How is Antoinette?”
“Besides a few bullies in school we’re trying to handle, she’s doing good. How are things with you?”
Janette sighed. “I don’t even know. I’ve been in a weird place mentally the last few months, but I guess that’s life.”
“What’s going on?” Tsung asked.
“Just everything.” Janette stared at her coffee. “I can’t explain it—just life. I’ll be back in a few minutes. I have to pee.” She stood up and headed to the bathroom abruptly.
Tsung shrugged and pulled out his phone to review reports from the various labs. A few minutes later, a text popped up on his phone from Jimmy.
Installations done. Head back, and let’s discuss.
As Tsung headed for the lab, he met up with Janette as she came out of the bathroom.
Jimmy met them at the door. The rest of the team had already left. “Installation complete, but we had an issue.”
“And what’s that?” Tsung asked.
“The connectors to the quantum port fried and burnt out the adapter. So all that had to be replaced. Since it is a new adapter, you need a good forty-eight hours for the quantum core to calibrate to the system.”
Tsung huffed. “Two days? We don’t have that kind of time to spare.”
“You’ll have to make time, unfortunately. If you try to load her matrix into the astral computer before it’s done calibrating, you could crash the entire system and have to replace the entire computer.” Jimmy turned to leave. “One more thing. Make sure its diagnostic light is green before proceeding."
Jimmy left, and Tsung went back to his desk.
They continued working on the project until later in the afternoon.
“I wrapped up for the day. I’m heading home. Are you coming?” Tsung asked.
Janette looked at him. “Ummm…” She glanced at her terminal. “I-I think I’ll stay and work a little later. Make some extra progress. I’ll close up when I’m done. I’ll see you in the morning. Is that okay?”
“Sure,” he said. “Is everything all right? You seem off?”
She hesitated. “Yes, I’m fine. Just tired. Tell Angela and Antoinette I said hey, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” With that, she turned back to the terminal.
Tsung pulled a key out of his desk and locked the astral chamber. Dropping the key in his pocket, he glanced at Janette as he headed for the door.
“Why did you lock it?” Janette asked, turning back around
End of free excerpt.
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